By Tim Cooke in Atlanta, USA

Impactful, right to the point and a design triumph. The new National Center for Civil and Human Rights in downtown Atlanta lays claim to the city’s pivotal role in the dramatic events of the 1960s – and broadens its remit to the universal theme of human rights around the globe.

Exhibition on American Civil Rights Movement

It’s a sweeping approach, foregrounded in Atlanta’s story as a hub of the American Civil Rights Movement. In the main exhibition Rolls Down Like Water: The American Civil Rights Movement the treatment of that story is innovative and affecting. This is not an object-led interpretation. The exhibition is experiential, with galleries strong on graphics and light, on photographs, video and audio. The broader narrative of events is interwoven with personal stories.

Inevitably, the section dealing with the assassination of Martin Luther King Jnr is a hard watch, with few punches pulled on the brutality of the killing and the shock, grief, violence and fear which followed. It is also, as the Center’s CEO Doug Shipman reminds me during our conversation, a different approach to that found elsewhere. It’s not a memorial to Dr King and has more of a documentary feel, although none the less powerful for that.

There is also a separate gallery displaying some of Dr King’s letters, hand-written speeches and publications from a collection owned by Morehouse College.

Exhibition on Global Human Rights

The exhibition on wider issues of human rights – disability rights, women’s rights, LGBT rights – sits on the upper floor entitled Spark of Conviction: The Global Human Rights Movement. It zones in on substantive issues but for me it needed more coherence. Perhaps it’s because there are in reality so many issues in such different contexts. This exhibition is very broad in its remit and its main strength currently may be in raising awareness and as a portal to further exploration and education.

Tim Cooke with Center CEO Doug Shipman

Overall, though, this is a stunning effort. The Center, which cost some $85 million dollars, sets out its mission and vision as follows:

MISSION

“The mission of The National Center for Civil and Human Rights is to empower people to take the protection of every human’s rights personally. Through sharing stories of courage and struggle around the world, The Center encourages visitors to gain a deeper understanding of the role they play in helping to protect the rights of all people.”

VISION

“The National Center for Civil and Human Rights harnesses Atlanta’s legacy of civil rights to strengthen the worldwide movement for human rights.

Atlanta played a unique leadership role in the modern American Civil Rights Movement. Through harnessing Atlanta’s legacy and galvanizing the corporate, faith-based, public-sector and university communities, The Center will serve as the ideal place to reflect on the past, transform the present and inspire the future.”

This is a project which is considered, direct and courageous. It deserves many more visitors than the 275,000 Doug Shipman is predicting as the total for the first full year of operation. Its message and approach merit a worldwide audience.